Ge­or­gia over S CAROLINA by 1

Jay­bird the Bull­dog, our SEC Scout, will be loung­ing in his Laz-Y-Boy at home when this ea­gerly awaited con­test kicks off on Satur­day. ‘Ea­gerly’ we say be­cause Jay­bird paid a visit to Ve­gas a few months ago and many of the sharps couldn’t wait to put their money on the Game­cocks. Look­ing to bounce back with an­other huge sea­son after reach­ing the BCS ti­tle game, the Dawgs kicked off this year’s cam­paign ver­sus Austin Peay, tak­ing a 38-0 lead at the half and coast­ing to an easy 45-0 shutout win last week. After los­ing RB’s Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, along with Al­lAmer­i­can LB Ro­quan Smith, Kirby Smart reloaded with one of the na­tion’s top re­cruit­ing classes, so Ge­or­gia ap­par­ently has found a home in the Top 10 for years to come. But you know what that means: con­trary is what con­trary does. In other words, we’re heed­ing Jay­bird’s advice and sid­ing with the Fight­ing Muschamps in this bor­der war, urged on by Marc’s

ar­ti­cle on page 2 with the Game­cocks in that mag­i­cal triple-re­venge ex­act sce­nario. Be­sides, South Carolina has posted an 8-3 spread record in this se­ries, stands 5-1-1 ATS with con­fer­ence re­venge, and is 7-3 ATS against the num­ber as a home dog of 10 or less points. In ad­di­tion, the Cocky rolled past lit­tle brother Coastal Carolina, 49-15, last week and QB Jake Bent­ley looked in mid-sea­son form. Fi­nally, some tid­bits from our fab­u­lous data­base: Ge­or­gia is 1-3 ATS in the first con­fer­ence game of late and man­aged to cover just one of their four SEC re­venge games last sea­son. Also worth not­ing: the Bull­dogs are just 7-15 ATS as fa­vorites in road open­ers, in­clud­ing if they re­main dou­bledigit chalk at kick­off. This has the mak­ings of an all-out SEC brawl and we see the Dawgs just barely es­cap­ing with the vic­tory. Just like Jay­bird would want it.